Interlude In The Key Of Derek Morgan
by FeathersMcStrange
Summary: 'Before crossing the near-deserted road to the bar across the street, Derek Morgan looked both ways twice, just in case some sloshed nut job decided to come careening down the road right as he set foot in it. It had been that sort of a week.' In which the night is quiet and Derek thinks. Drabble. Gen. No warnings or pairings.


**So I've generally been a terrible updater lately. On pretty much everything. Then again I am rewriting one of my current multi-chapter things so...**

**Here, have a quiet, sentimental drabble thing I wrote from a prompt on Tumblr.**

**The prompt was 'Derek Morgan, friday night off'. **

**(btw if any of you all want to give me a prompt or say hi or poke me about one of my other stories, you can always find me on Tumblr, my handle being fandomacelawyer)**

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Before crossing the near-deserted road to the bar across the street, Derek Morgan looked both ways twice, just in case some sloshed nut job decided to come careening down the road right as he set foot in it. It had been that sort of a week. He'd tried to remember the last time his luck had been so completely shot but came up blank.

First he had rolled out of bed at three AM to an emergency call in regarding an abducted three year old, then the jet had hit turbulence on the way to their remote small town destination, and when they landed it was raining. It rained solid for all four days they were there and Derek estimated he had gotten about six hours of sleep the whole time. Then turbulence on the way home meaning no sleep then and when he finally did make it to his apartment the building's heat system was out.

A solid twelve hours or so of sleep later and the world seemed right side up again. It being Friday night and also their day off, Derek was headed for his team's usual weekend haunt, a bar that probably saw more FBI personnel than it did regular people. He was met with a blast of warm air upon opening the door, stepping into the room with an easy smile. A quick survey of the room pinpointed his entire team, scattered around the room. Derek grinned to himself and shook his head, wondering if they all spent far too much time together, if they automatically gravitated towards each other even on their day off.

Hotch and Rossi were at a back table with tumblers of some sort of amber liquid, pouring over a stack of papers. Derek snorted and shook his head again. Paperwork on their day off… Definitely sounded like Hotch, and he guessed Rossi had either been roped into it or had taken pity on his workaholic friend. He stopped and said a brief hello before moving on around the room.

Clapping his hands down on Reid's shoulders, Derek ignored his team's youngest member's startled jump and indignant yelp, peering at what he was doing. A deck of cards lay out on the bar, Reid apparently in the middle of some trick or other.

"What'cha up to? Card tricks?" he asked, dropping into the chair to the genius's right. Reid shrugged, flipping over another card and shuffling around the deck.

"Just practicing. It's been a while."

An excited call of his name interrupted what he'd been about to say next, and Derek turned just in time to spot Penelope Garcia in all her bright colored glory, a wide smile on her face coming towards them. She was followed by the final two coworkers he hadn't seen yet, JJ and Emily both with satisfied, happy expressions.

"Pretty Boy here was just showing me a magic trick, weren't you Reid?" Derek prompted, draping an arm across Penelope's shoulders.

"Oh, uh, I…" Reid said awkwardly, fiddling with one of the cards.

"Oh come on, just show us one!" Emily picked up the card he'd dropped and handed it to him. "Make that disappear or something."

Looking around at all four of their faces, Reid sighed and gave in, beginning to shuffle and talk at once, the rectangles of stiff paper twirling deftly around his fingers. Derek sat back and ordered a drink from the bartender, content to watch Reid entertain JJ, Garcia, and Emily with his card tricks. The hum of the bar goers in the background was steady and comforting. A quick glance told him Hotch and Rossi had given up on paperwork for the moment and were engaged in quiet conversation.

It had been one hell of a week, but it was Friday. The week was over now. They had recovered the girl alive and relatively unharmed. None of his team members had been hurt. They kept their heads up and their shoulders squared and could still laugh at a magic trick in a bar on a Friday night. Derek looked back as Reid pulled a card from JJ's jacket pocket, prompting delighted laughter.

Derek sighed contentedly and took a drink. Sometimes it felt like the negatives outweighed the positives, the bad things in the world tipping the scales away from the good. But then sometimes it didn't seem too awful and he remembered why he did this in the first place. He was tired but he was warm, his dog waiting for him at home and the sound of his friends' laughter ringing in his ears. For now that was good enough.


End file.
